1. Winged
Heart. Design by Francis Ow. I don’t
remember where I learned this model, probably at least 10 years ago, but later
I found it in a Francis Ow book. I probably still have that book, but can’t
find it now. This one starts out with Cupboard Doors, then you Inside-Reverse
the corners on one half of the model, leaving the other half untouched. Then Mountain-Fold
the corners of the untouched half to the back, lining the edges up at the
bottom. And so on.....

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Here are three Hearts we made with patterned
origami paper.

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2. Heart
from a Square. Design by Francis Ow.
I learned this model at:
happyfolding.com/instructions-ow-love_with_strings_attached. Do a Book Fold,
then one Cupboard Door, and roll it over. Make a pinch halfway across long
side. Do an Airplane Fold, on the solid side, bringing layered edges to meet on
the middle line (white is now showing on this side). Hard to describe after
this. I also found an animated cartoon showing a different method, but with
very similar result, at:
en.origami-club.com/valentine/heart-pendant/anime-heart-pendant/index.html.

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And here’s one showing the back of the model.

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3. Rocking Horse. Design by Jose Tomas Buitrago. Leyla Torres posted the approved video on origamispirit.com. Starts with a white Square Base. Leyla made a mobile out of them, but they look cute just about anywhere. Happy Chinese Year of the Horse, 2014!

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4. Horse
Head. Design by Leyla Torres.
Basically a riff off the Rocking Horse, but a nice one. Makes a nice card
decoration or bookmark. Leyla also shows it glued onto a popsicle stick, and
stuck into a cupcake for a party decoration.

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5. Cube With
Windows. Design is a variation by
Bennett Arnstein, on Decoration Box by Lewis Simon. Diagram can be found in
“Beginner’s Book of Modular Origami Polyhedra: The Platonic Solids” by Rona Gurkewitz & Bennett Arnstein, Dover,
2008, pg24. I learned the model from Bennett in ca 2008. I made one and never
made another, until now. The modules are easy and the assembly is mildly
challenging. Once completed, the model is very sturdy.

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6. Two-Faced
Heart. A boy (about 13 or 14)
dropped by our table at the HiDEF meeting, and watched us folding the Winged
Heart; then he produced this Two-Faced Heart on his own, he said. So I credit
the design to him, although some aspects of it are reminiscent of a Francis Ow
model I've done in the past. It could be a derivation. Need to find my Francis Ow
books! Starts with a colored Triangle Base (aka Waterbomb Base) and requires a
small tear or cut to create the inside notch of the heart.

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Another look at the Two-Faced Heart, with the front
right-side flap folded to the left so you can see the “mechanics” which are
hidden on the sides.

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7. Traditional
Flapping Bird. Design is Traditional.
Diagram can be found in “The Magic of Origami” by Alice Gray & Kunihiko
Kasahara, pg86. This one has the wider neck and tail as compared to the
Traditional Flapping Crane. Both models are shown on page 86 of the book. The Traditional
Flapping Bird has good flapping action, but it can be uneven and hard to get
started. The small “step” on the bottom is important. It can be on the neck
side or the tail side, but that step is what creates a comfortable space for
the paper to move which allows the wings to move.

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8. Gaillardia. Design by Meenakshi Mukerji. Video
instructions on happyfolding.com, by Sara Adams. I really like this model and
I’m very grateful to Sara Adams for featuring it in one of her excellent
videos. I have Meenakshi’s book (“Wondrous One Sheet Origami” (2013), pg59),
but who knows how long it would have taken me to peruse the book and try this
model, it could have been years, if ever. “So many books, so little time!” So,
a big “thank you” to Meenakshi and Sara for their generous sharing of their
time and efforts with the origami community!

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I found this model hard to make correctly and
neatly, but I’ve only done two of them following, exactly, the diagram/video. And
I used a 6” square of duo paper, which is a little too small and perhaps too
heavy for that size. The book recommends 8” or larger, and I agree, unless you
have very thin paper. The portions of the paper that form the petals ends up
being several layers thick in some places. My two attempts ended up looking
pretty enough, but somewhat lumpy; I can’t get either of them to lay really
flat. At least part of the problem seems to be the collapsed “vanes” on the
back. Perhaps some glue to flatten them? Or, again, larger or thinner paper.
But, yeah, as diagrammed, it’s very pretty and has a sturdiness, or heft, the
ones discussed below lack.

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One thing that I had trouble doing neatly was the
odd-angled crease made in steps 12 and 13. In the final analysis, it appears to
me that the beginning part of that crease (the part closer to the middle of the
model) is only there to set the correct angle, while the outer part of the
crease is the part you end up using in step 15, to evenly collapse the petals
around the octagon. I found in later attempts (see below) that I could make
this crease more-easily by just bringing the two adjacent creases together, at
the outer edge of the octagonal model (before the collapse), and just crease
down to the edge of the middle octagon. This locates the shaping-crease in
between the other two creases, which is where it seems to be aimed, in the
diagram and the video.

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I already know Wenhau Chao’s ESS (Emma’s Secret
Star, which Wenhau says is based on a Carmen Sprung model that I have not yet
found any reference to), and I recognized that this model uses essentially the
same base, just with variations to get the color-change and a slightly
different shape to the petals/star-points (and the face of the Gaillardia is on
the opposite side from the face of the ESS). So I tried making several of this
model using a base more like the ESS (I skipped the color-change steps and used
paper that has a different color in the center, to become the center of the
Gaillardia). I found this easier to do successfully, the only con being that
you have to choose your paper to get that color-change in the center using only
one side of the paper.

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This photo shows the two attempts I made, following
*all* the directions as exactly as I could. I used a 6” square which is a bit
too small; the paper becomes thick and the collapse and petal-shaping is
difficult. But this photo shows the model with the correct color-change which
has one side of the paper showing in the middle and the color on the other side
of the paper showing in the petal area. My first attempt is on the right, and you
can see that the petals did not collapse very evenly, due to the difficulty I
had making the shaping-crease as shown in the diagram, and also the thickness
of the outer parts of the octagon. Larger (or thinner) paper and more practice
would no doubt help!

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Here is a shot of the back of the model, showing
the collapsed “vanes”. With this relatively-thick paper, I can’t get the vanes
to lie very flat.

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The next photo shows one that I made using the
ESS-like method (I’ll call it Gaillardia Variation by Chila or GVC); the paper
it’s made from is also shown, so you can see how the pattern on the front side
collapsed to show on the face of the Gaillardia; nothing from the back side is
visible on the front of the model). I have always had at least some trouble
getting the petals (or star points) to collapse in an even and regular way
around the octagon, when making the ESS. Using Meenakshi’s idea of putting in
that shaping-crease before doing the collapse, makes this easier to do. I did
the shaping-crease as described in the third paragraph, above.

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This final photo shows another GVC (ie, made by the
ESS method; showing only the front side of the paper). This one shows more
clearly the different-colored center of the paper collapsed into the center of
the completed model. Again, no part of the back side of the paper is showing in
this version of the model.

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I had never heard of this name, Gaillardia, and
looked it up and here is what Wikipedia had to say: Gaillardia, or Blanket Flower,
is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, native to
North and South America. It was named after M. Gaillard de Merentonneau (or
perhaps Charentonneau), an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of
botany. The common name “blanket flower” may refer to the resemblance of the
inflorescence to the brightly patterned blankets made by Native Americans, or
to the ability of wild varieties to blanket the ground with colonies. Many
cultivars have been bred for ornamental use.

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(My thimble-full of French
knowledge, from many years ago, says that the name is probably pronounced
either gay-LAR-dia, or gail-YAR-dia.)

All Photos
by Chila Caldera, unless noted otherwise. If you use them, give full credit,
for the origami design and the photo. If you use any Diagrams on this page, or pointed to, give full credit to the
extent known, for both the design and the diagram; you may share, but not sell,
the diagram.

----- The RUFF
meeting for March 2014 will be held at the Rosamond, CA, Library on:

Tuesday, 04 Mar,
5-7pm.

----- The HiDEF
meeting for March 2014 will be held at the Lancaster, CA, Library on:

Saturday, 15
Mar, 1-4pm.

----- Whoever shows up for these meetings can sit
down and fold with me or whoever else is there. I always bring plenty of paper
and am always ready to teach various simple-to-intermediate origamies. Others
can teach as well, or bring books or diagrams that we can explore together.